3 Oxnard Lawyers Picked as National Finalists

Three Oxnard attorneys are among 10 national finalists for the 1994 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. The award, presented by Washington, D.C.-based Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, is presented annually to the lawyer deemed to have contributed the most to the public interest through work on a precedent-setting case.

Two of the Ventura County nominees, Mark O. Hiepler and Alan R. Templeman, represented the estate of Hiepler’s sister, Nelene Fox, in a suit against Health Net, a health maintenance organization based in Woodland Hills.

The suit charged that Health Net wrongfully refused to pay for a bone-marrow transplant for Hiepler’s sister, a cancer victim. A jury awarded the estate a record $89.3 million, which was reduced in a settlement to an undisclosed amount.

The third Oxnard nominee, Lee Pliscou, was one of the attorneys who represented women packinghouse workers in a sex-discrimination case against Oxnard Lemon Co.

A federal judge ruled that hiring discrimination at the company was so clear-cut that no trial was necessary. Oxnard Lemon paid $575,000 to its female employees and agreed to re-structure its hiring and assignment systems.

Hiepler and Templeman were on the staff of Lowthorp Richards McMillan Miller Conway & Templeman. Templeman is still a partner with the firm but Hiepler has left and opened a new firm, Hiepler & Hiepler, along with his wife, Michelle.

Pliscou was with California Rural Legal Assistance. He has since left the agency and is “taking a round-the-world trip,” an agency spokeswoman said.